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It's an iBook G4. I'm now a happy and proud owner of such a machine, and user of both MacOS X Panther an Linux on it.

The first thing I did when I got my hands on it was to re-partition it's hard drive and install Panther. Then I followed the instructions on setting up the mother of all Linux distributions on it from here.

I did the initial install of the Debian GNU/Linux base system (not without having to use a different kernel image for the ATA support, among other things to fiddle with), but then I started to take a serious look at OS X. It's an impressive operating system, with such a lovely and responsive GUI but the real power of UNIX I'm all used to underneath. I installed lots of open source software that I've get used to and couldn't live without. It all works so smoothly and nicely along other native applications, such as iTunes, Mail.app, Safari, Keynote, etc. - you get the best of both worlds. You have fink, you have darwinports, there's even OpenOffice.org. And if you're a developer, you also got Xcode from Apple. As I said, the both of worlds. And for some extra bucks you can get back some of your most beloved features from the Linux world: WindowShade X is a fine example of it.

Panther is also packed with some neat features not present anywhere else. Finder, for example, if one of the best file manager I've ever used. And Expose - I really miss it when working on Linux. One of the most useful enhancements a desktop environment could have get, it's not only eyecandy.

But then the necessity came and striked me hard. I have a small Linux consulting company. I was in a meeting with a customer the other day, and he wasn't so convinced that Linux could be a _viable_ alternative on the desktop. He thought it was just a black screen with UNIX-y commands and such. And there I was, with my iBook with Debian loaded on it but with no desktop environment to show off. Just a black screen with UNIX-y commands and such.

So I spent the whole night that day googling around and finally got my iBook to work nicely with Linux 2.6.2, supporting almost every single feature that's present on it except for Airport Extreme and the sleep functionality, which are not supported: sound, networking, USB 2.0, firewire, the combo drive, the ATI Radeon 9200 with DRI, the special function keys, the CPU frequency scaling. I even configured it to use an hfsplus partition for the /home directory, so now I have a single home for both Linux and OS X. Same desktop, same config for common programs.

There are still some things that Linux can do better than OS X. Like OpenOffice.org or GIMP. Certainly both programs do exist for OS X but their performance and overall integration with the rest of the system is not so good.

The conclusion of it is that, even if MacOS X is one hell of an operating system, Linux is fun. I love to use the same plataform on my x86 desktop I've grown used to for more than 6 years than on my PPC based laptop. And I still have the chance to reboot and use Panther for the amusement of it.

Regards,

It's an iBook G4. I'm now a happy and proud owner of such a machine, and user of both MacOS X Panther an Linux on it.

The first thing I did when I got my hands on it was to re-partition it's hard drive and install Panther. Then I followed the instructions on setting up the mother of all Linux distributions on it from here.

I did the initial install of the Debian GNU/Linux base system (not without having to use a different kernel image for the ATA support, among other things to fiddle with), but then I started to take a serious look at OS X. It's an impressive operating system, with such a lovely and responsive GUI but the real power of UNIX I'm all used to underneath. I installed lots of open source software that I've get used to and couldn't live without. It all works so smoothly and nicely along other native applications, such as iTunes, Mail.app, Safari, Keynote, etc. - you get the best of both worlds. You have fink, you have darwinports, there's even OpenOffice.org. And if you're a developer, you also got Xcode from Apple. As I said, the both of worlds. And for some extra bucks you can get back some of your most beloved features from the Linux world: WindowShade X is a fine example of it.

Panther is also packed with some neat features not present anywhere else. Finder, for example, if one of the best file manager I've ever used. And Expose - I really miss it when working on Linux. One of the most useful enhancements a desktop environment could have get, it's not only eyecandy.

But then the necessity came and striked me hard. I have a small Linux consulting company. I was in a meeting with a customer the other day, and he wasn't so convinced that Linux could be a _viable_ alternative on the desktop. He thought it was just a black screen with UNIX-y commands and such. And there I was, with my iBook with Debian loaded on it but with no desktop environment to show off. Just a black screen with UNIX-y commands and such.

So I spent the whole night that day googling around and finally got my iBook to work nicely with Linux 2.6.2, supporting almost every single feature that's present on it except for Airport Extreme and the sleep functionality, which are not supported: sound, networking, USB 2.0, firewire, the combo drive, the ATI Radeon 9200 with DRI, the special function keys, the CPU frequency scaling. I even configured it to use an hfsplus partition for the /home directory, so now I have a single home for both Linux and OS X. Same desktop, same config for common programs.

There are still some things that Linux can do better than OS X. Like OpenOffice.org or GIMP. Certainly both programs do exist for OS X but their performance and overall integration with the rest of the system is not so good.

The conclusion of it is that, even if MacOS X is one hell of an operating system, Linux is fun. I love to use the same plataform on my x86 desktop I've grown used to for more than 6 years than on my PPC based laptop. And I still have the chance to reboot and use Panther for the amusement of it.

Regards,

FUAA (Firefox users association of america) is the first organization which gathers FIRE FOX USERS from all over the world for one common goal - USING FIRE FOX!

Do you use Firefox?
Do you read Fark?
Are you a Firefox user that reads fark??

If you answered "Yes" to any of the above questions, then FUAA (Firefox users association of america) might be exactly what you've been looking for! Join FUAA (Firefox users association america) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time FUAA member. FUAA (Fire fox users association of america) is the fastest-growing FIREFOX community with THOUSANDS of members all over the world. You, too, can be a part of FUAA if you join today!

Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!

* First, you have to visit Mozilla.org and download the latest nightly of firefox.
* Second, you need to succeed in posting a FUAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular Internet Explorer users website
* Third, you need to join the official FUAA irc channel #FUAA on EFNet, and apply for membership. Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

This post is brought to you by Mookore 2004, purveour of ASCII cows, a proud member of the FUAA!

But it only works in Firefox!

Install firefox, then vist goatse.cx. The picture is gone, but there is still a nice page there!

If you haven't tried out Open Source software yet (shame on you, why are you reading slashdot then) then its time to try some.

Start off by trying an open source web browser, such as firefox. I have personally installed it on several machines, and it works wonders.

Then try some more software, Such as Gimp, OpenOffice, 7Zip.

If you liked that software, then you may Like to try e Linux, the Open Source Operating System! It even works on Macs too! See how easy to use and reliable open source is. Try Mandrake or Fedora as they are both good versions of Linux.

Someone already wrote a patch.

Fireb^Hfox has a HUGE number of :config options, many of which rarely (if ever) need to be used. They can't make a GUI option for all of them. In addition, it's still beta, even though most people seem to forget. So if it really bothers you, file a feature request for that specific option, and/or wait for the final release.

M$ already is adopting (read; embrace & extend) Mozilla. There will be no new releases of IE beyond security patches. The beast's new browser will be integrated more tightly into Longhorn than IE ever was into previous Windows versions, and will apparently rely on an XML-like markup language called XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language or some such), which from what I've seen, looks and sounds a lot like XUL.

Once again, Microsoft is innovating what has already been done.

Binary files (e.g. .wma and .rar files) served by servers incorrectly sending text/plain should no longer be displayed as garbage in the browser, rather they should be appropriately handled.

That's bug 132565. You'll need to type the bug number in here, since bugzilla blocks direct slashdot links.

The point to make is that this is a "known bug" and there's at least the intention to fix it (and, like any OSS project, you could fix it yourself and submit it). With IE's flawed box model, or Safari's sketchy table DOM, or Opera's non-existant XMLHttpRequest object, your only option is to wait.

Mozilla could be a contender, but it's split into a million project as a mozilla user, i know of the current browser (1.6?), Firefox (lets remember this IS a beta we're talking about), Thunderbird - a mail client, and some MAC OSX only broswer that I'm too lazy to go get the name of. My point is, that's 4 projects, please name the other 999,996 please cause I'd like to explore their other products.

And really FF and TB are branches of the main Mozilla suite. There was the Sunbird project, which was developing a stand-alone version of the Mozilla Calendar, but I think it's dead; and there was talk of creating Moonbird, an HTML editor. The other projects listed on Mozilla's download page are developer tools, and, strangely, a Java email client.

Being an open-source project, there are naturally some unofficial projects based upon Gecko, like Aggreg8 and Newsmonster, but they aren't taking resources away from the Mozilla Foundation.

Firefox uses XUL

I'm using Firefox right now as a matter of fact, but I don't know where they're going with their icon designs...

the new logo appears to be a gigantic fox humping the earth

I wonder if that's the old IE 2 earth icon he's humping?

try here

You don't embed firefox, you embed gecko. (the rendering engine for mozilla, firefox, camino, etc..)

On Mozilla's Project list, they show 63 of their own projects, 12 browsers (three of which are their own, one of which is also one of the 63 projects), and seven projects that they know of not under their own control.

Yes. This is correct
docs

if (!document.all && document.getElementById) {
document.getElementById("edit").contentDocument .designMode="on";
}

if (!document.all && document.getElementById) {
document.getElementById("edit").contentDocument .designMode="on";
}

I agree with the other replies, "best viewed with" ads are bad. No harm in promoting your favorite browser, though. I'm going to put one of these good looking buttons on all my pages, personally.

Yes, the GRE (Gecko runtime environment) has been around for a while. See http://www.mozilla.org/projects/embedding/GRE.html

See Rich Text Editing Specification.

By I remember from mozilla 1.3, there is something like richtext edit in mozilla, lemme google it... link1 and link 2

By I remember from mozilla 1.3, there is something like richtext edit in mozilla, lemme google it... link1 and link 2

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/embedding/

Code to the standards, and make sure your clients realize that even though "everybody" uses IE, it is a relic, essentially unchanged since version 5.0, released in March 1999. More importantly, IE still has poor support for W3C recommendations that existed for years prior to version 5.0. These things make sites harder to implement, take longer, and therefore will cost more. Your clients will understand that.

Evangelize standards compliant browsers, both for your clients and for the users on their sites. Web developers are the only people who can drive these changes in the general public.

Marking up to standards shouldn't be harder than marking up to a certain browser. It should be easier, since it's all documented. If a browser breaks, the coders of that browser will fix it[1].

Second, separate presentation from content. It makes it much easier to make sense out of webpages. If you can't even do that, you really are "fucking lazy". If you're that "fucking lazy", get off the 'net, or at least tell us all where your site is so we can throw it in our /etc/hosts and be done with it.

[1] Or they won't, as in the case of MICROS~1. With a quasi-monopoly such as the great MICROS~1, they have no incentive to fix IE, since everyone's already using it. But they're not a true monopoly! Download Mozilla Firefox (a better browser anyways, and it's extensible!) and pray to Life.Animalia.Chordata.Mammalia.Primates.Hominidae .Homo.Sapiens.Creator that IE6 will fall off the earth. Blech, what a nasty browser.

There's a difference. Microsoft only do it at the application layer, with a particular browser that they provide. If you don't like it (and I can't see why anyone would), you can always switch to one of the many alternatives. Verisign's site finder operates at the DNS level. It's not as if you can choose to not use DNS, or switch to another name service.

From the Firefox brand name FAQ, concerning their current name:

Will this name be permanent?

We sure hope so. We've learned a lot about choosing names in the past year (more than we would have liked to). We have been very careful in researching the name to ensure that we will not have any problems down the road. We have begun the process of registering our new trademark with the US Patent and Trademark office.

I suppose they changed their minds

and my G3 will be running Linux by tommarow

Hate to break this to you, but if youre after Safari 1.2, installing Linux on your G3 isnt going to help you. Or buying a PC for that matter.

If you want the latest browser for your Mac without having to pay anyone, ever heard of Mozilla? It will work on 10.1

Just out of curiosity, what hardware are you running on?

How many legs does that browser have?

Firefox? I thought it was Firebird

Following the link myself... HUH??? What happen? Somebody set up us the bomb? But who? The database?

apt-get install browser-formerly-known-as-firebird?

Wasn't it called phoenix before, and then renamed because they found a PC-related company with that name? So the new version will create a ~/.phoenix, a ~/.mozilla-firebird and a ~/.mozilla-firefox directory including the resulting babelonian confusions?

Did they realize that there already exists a joystick with the name firefox? And a Game PC with the name firefox? And even a Clint Eastwood movie with the name firefox... True to form, there even was a car named firefox, and a tire with that name. Oh, and a company with that name too...

Or will they just switch names again when they figure that out?

And next is the tunderfox?

And then a company in Redmond discovers that somebody already uses the name for their OS to mean glass inside a hole in the wall, causing them to suddenly switch names without thinking of their installed user base? or another company just finding out the name of that big bright thing that lights the sky every day?

Yes, phoenix/firefird/fox is a fine browser, but why the identity problems?

How many legs does that browser have?

Firefox? I thought it was Firebird

Following the link myself... HUH??? What happen? Somebody set up us the bomb? But who? The database?

apt-get install browser-formerly-known-as-firebird?

Wasn't it called phoenix before, and then renamed because they found a PC-related company with that name? So the new version will create a ~/.phoenix, a ~/.mozilla-firebird and a ~/.mozilla-firefox directory including the resulting babelonian confusions?

Did they realize that there already exists a joystick with the name firefox? And a Game PC with the name firefox? And even a Clint Eastwood movie with the name firefox... True to form, there even was a car named firefox, and a tire with that name. Oh, and a company with that name too...

Or will they just switch names again when they figure that out?

And next is the tunderfox?

And then a company in Redmond discovers that somebody already uses the name for their OS to mean glass inside a hole in the wall, causing them to suddenly switch names without thinking of their installed user base? or another company just finding out the name of that big bright thing that lights the sky every day?

Yes, phoenix/firefird/fox is a fine browser, but why the identity problems?

Here they are.

With regards to your dislikes:

5. Some plug-ins/extensions need to be added to the Mozilla Firefox setup file

Bundled extensions is planned for the next release (0.9), as demonstrated in the firefox roadmap.

7. Download manager clutter

In options, go to "Privacy", then "Download manager history". You can set it to erase download entries on completion, which is the setting I prefer.

8. Exporting bookmarks problems

Actually, replacing & with & is the correct behaviour, since html 4 does not allow & in url's. Firefox stores its bookmarks as html, so I expect that this doesn't happen on export, but on import. If you link to a url containing an ampersand, you need to escape it, always. Yes, it's sort of annoying, but I expect there are good technical reasons (which I'm too lazy to look up). Besides, every browser out there opens url's with & in them correctly. What exactly is the problem?

9. Default sorting of bookmarks.

Strange, it sorts them the way you want it in my install. Don't understand why you're seeing this.

10. Auto-update

It's called smartupdate, and it's planned for firefox 0.9. See the roadmap again.

11. Uninstall plug-ins/extensions

Firefox 0.9. Yeah, I know, they're keeping all the cool stuff for the next version. But believe me, they know.

12. Autoscroll problem.

This is only a problem for you, due to your dependancy on autoscroll. I use a scrollwheel, and disable autoscroll. This is actually a fixed bug. In previous versions middleclicking a link would sometimes activate autoscroll instead of opening the link. Firefox doesn't do that anymore. I believe the current behaviour is the correct behaviour, since it doesn't neuter the middle mouse button's ability to open new webpages.

2. Major issue with the Flash Click to view extension

This is annoying indeed, but it is predictable. Any other implementation would either require micromanagement or trigger flash displaying when you don't want it. And besides, anyone using flash for website navigation is a callous retard and deserves to have their site break in real browsers. (To anyone doubting this: think about what happens when a blind person tries to visit a website that depends on flash for navigation.)

The flash blocking code has been updated by the way, but it hasn't trickled back to the extension. See jesse rudderman's xbl flash binding page.

With regards to your dislikes:

5. Some plug-ins/extensions need to be added to the Mozilla Firefox setup file

Bundled extensions is planned for the next release (0.9), as demonstrated in the firefox roadmap.

7. Download manager clutter

In options, go to "Privacy", then "Download manager history". You can set it to erase download entries on completion, which is the setting I prefer.

8. Exporting bookmarks problems

Actually, replacing & with & is the correct behaviour, since html 4 does not allow & in url's. Firefox stores its bookmarks as html, so I expect that this doesn't happen on export, but on import. If you link to a url containing an ampersand, you need to escape it, always. Yes, it's sort of annoying, but I expect there are good technical reasons (which I'm too lazy to look up). Besides, every browser out there opens url's with & in them correctly. What exactly is the problem?

9. Default sorting of bookmarks.

Strange, it sorts them the way you want it in my install. Don't understand why you're seeing this.

10. Auto-update

It's called smartupdate, and it's planned for firefox 0.9. See the roadmap again.

11. Uninstall plug-ins/extensions

Firefox 0.9. Yeah, I know, they're keeping all the cool stuff for the next version. But believe me, they know.

12. Autoscroll problem.

This is only a problem for you, due to your dependancy on autoscroll. I use a scrollwheel, and disable autoscroll. This is actually a fixed bug. In previous versions middleclicking a link would sometimes activate autoscroll instead of opening the link. Firefox doesn't do that anymore. I believe the current behaviour is the correct behaviour, since it doesn't neuter the middle mouse button's ability to open new webpages.

2. Major issue with the Flash Click to view extension

This is annoying indeed, but it is predictable. Any other implementation would either require micromanagement or trigger flash displaying when you don't want it. And besides, anyone using flash for website navigation is a callous retard and deserves to have their site break in real browsers. (To anyone doubting this: think about what happens when a blind person tries to visit a website that depends on flash for navigation.)

The flash blocking code has been updated by the way, but it hasn't trickled back to the extension. See jesse rudderman's xbl flash binding page.

I had to make my own stupid "Mozilla Now" button several months ago, glad Mozilla folks have finally done them themselves =)

There was a project to make a low resources mozilla called minimo. There is a webpage here, but I'm not sure how active the project is now.

Moz has the certificate management stuff, but it's not all bundled with the browser due to export regulations worries. (See here.)

And regarding the benefits for upgrading from older versions, here's two fairly complete lists (moreso than the changelogs) for 0.7 and 0.8.
It's good stuff.

The following is a full list of the primary and secondary mirrors that have Firefox 0.8 builds. This list will also be maintained and updated.

Apologies for not listing one per line, but slashdot rejects posts with "too few characters per line".

North America: mozilla.isc.org (http) mozilla.isc.org (ftp) trillian.cc.gatech.edu (http) trillian.cc.gatech.edu (ftp) mozilla.ussg.indiana.edu (http) mozilla.ussg.indiana.edu (ftp) mozilla.oregonstate.edu (http) mozilla.oregonstate.edu (ftp) mozilla.gnusoft.net (http)

Europe: sunsite.rediris.es (http) sunsite.rediris.es (ftp) sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch (ftp) ftp.cvut.cz (ftp) www.artfiles.org (http) ftp.rediris.es (ftp) ftp.rediris.es (http) ftp.task.gda.pl (ftp) ftp.task.gda.pl (http) sunsite.icm.edu.pl (ftp) (Windows only) sunsite.icm.edu.pl (http) (Windows only) ftp.mirror.ac.uk (ftp)

Asia/Australia: ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp (ftp) ftp.kaist.ac.kr (http) ftp.kaist.ac.kr (ftp) ftp.nctu.edu.tw (ftp) mozilla.mirror.pacific.net.au (ftp) mozilla.mirror.pacific.net.au (http)

Actually I found the nearly hourly crashes in Opera to be a good thing. A good reminder that it's time to get off the computer and go do something else. Don't use it any more though. The ads are just irritating. Why get use to them when you don't have to?

Just get firefox already!.

The problem is XUL. Imagine having to interpret javascript everytime you interact with a GUI object. That's what it does. All of this overhead slows the computer down. In turn it eats up memory and CPU. IE's faster because its GUI is compiled. There's no background interpreter having to chug out calculations when you click on a widget.

Why would anyone pay for a browser when there are perfectly good (better in my opinion) browsers out there? I'm talking about This one, this one, and this one not this one. Mozilla rocks!!! Seriously someone give me a good reason to pay $30 for a browser, even if it is "the fastest browser on earth, that's not worth $30 to me...

Why would anyone pay for a browser when there are perfectly good (better in my opinion) browsers out there? I'm talking about This one, this one, and this one not this one. Mozilla rocks!!! Seriously someone give me a good reason to pay $30 for a browser, even if it is "the fastest browser on earth, that's not worth $30 to me...

Hell yea, I've just installed this button-merit-badge. Keep your visitors up-to-date. Thank you! :)

You're proposing a browser that's not even out of beta for corporate use? I wouldn't consider that a particularly good idea

Oh really.

Why You Should Switch to FireFox

"Further improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS"

Secunia Internet Explorer System Compromise Vulnerabilities. Solution: "Use another product"

The Twenty Most Critical Internet Security Vulnerabilities IE: Number four.

"we are not aware of any vendor-supplied patches for this issue"

Patch for 'critical' IE vulnerability doesn't work

IE full of holes, unsafe: Security experts

AMS Vice President and CTO: Mozilla Firebird is a Tier 1, Best of Breed Open Source Application

I don't care if it's a beta. Firebird/FireFox/Whatever is simply a better product than IE in every conceivable way - with the pertinent exception of branding, but including stability and security. So what exactly makes its use at a corporate level a "bad idea?"

You can create fake bookmarks that have some smarts to them

Er, this feature is called Custom Keywords and it's been in Mozilla for several years.

Gerv

Seriously though, I think this looks like the final name and I like it.

Mozilla.org seems to be real slow now. Try downloading from the mirrors. Out of the mirrors, this one seems to be updated.

United States
- ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/
(Californi a - ftp://mozilla.isc.org/pub/mozilla.org/)
(Georgia - ftp://trillian.cc.gatech.edu/pub/mozilla.org/)
(I ndiana - ftp://mozilla.ussg.indiana.edu/pub/mozilla.org/)
(Oregon - ftp://mozilla.oregonstate.edu/pub/mozilla.org/)

Europe
- ftp://ftp.eu.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/
(Switze rland - ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/mozilla/)
(U K - ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.mozilla.org/pub/)
(Kor ea - ftp://ftp.kaist.ac.kr/pub/mozilla/)

Be warned that if you use Mozilla Thunderbird on windows that there is a very serious bug! More on in here...

Some spam/virus mails has mangled invalid headers that Mozilla Mail/Thunderbird chokes on. When receiving mails, it simply stops when it encounters the bad mail, but it doesn't mark the previous mails as received or anything. So next time you check mail, you get every mail again until the bad mail, and so on...